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Medical woes

11:56 AM

Sorry for not writing much, I had quite a roller coaster ride in the past few weeks and I'm not even sure I'm ever going to recover from that. It all started with a pending trip to Switzerland on which I would accompany DH to see my family (my plane ticket would have been paid by the company).In an effort to get ready by the first week of February I barely noticed that my periods were late, and blamed it on hormonal imbalance and the fact my gyn told me to go off the medicine I was taking after 3 months to see if I had a regular cycle without, she knew I've been trying to conceive but hey trust the doctor right? So a couple of days before we were to take off I take a pregnancy test to see if by chance the no period thing meant I was pregnant, and it turned out...I was, so I go back to my gyn, who tell me..."Oh then you need to go back on Glycomet, it's better for the baby" and send me for an ultra sound that confirm I'm 5 weeks along my pregnancy, but 2-3 days later I get this hunch that something is wrong, I try to dismiss it to hormones, but it keeps coming, I pack my stuff non the less and in the middle of our packing, barely 12 hours before our flight is due, DH get a mail from his company saying his assignment in Switzerland has been cancelled...and I start feeling afraid again, so back we go to the Apollo Clinic near our place but my regular Gyn isn't there the one I see in the evening, crudely dismiss my fears, tell me to pray to God and wait until I'm at 8 weeks in my pregnancy to see if baby is fine. We make another appointment with a different Gyn who has a private practice on the 14th of Jan, and I wait until then, she find it weird no one checked the viability of the baby yet, especially since the heart start beating a 6 weeks and I seem to be in my 8th week rather than my 7th anyway and send me for an ultrasound. The 15th of February will be a dark day, I go to the Apollo clinic in the morning as the radiologist is there only from 9-12am, he does the regular external scan and say, it's too soon to tell but call your doctor to see if we can do an internal scan, which we did and revealed the baby's hear was not beating and the growth stopped. My rational new doctor sent me across town for a confirmation by another radiologist, who sadly confirmed the diagnosis, having me left with no choice but terminate the pregnancy and be left with just my eyes to cry. Now this above scenario is traumatizing enough right? But what bugs me even more, is how the whole situation,has been handled, and how things are done in India in the so called "World Class facilities" establishment. That my previous Gyn gave me wrong prescription for my PCOSok I can digest, there are bad doctors everywhere, being sent crudely home when I worry and be told to pray God and wait...I find it a bit harder. Having a radiologist not do an internal exam in the first trimester except when a doctor ask for it, when in other countries they tend to do that knowing they get a better quality picture without asking, is disturbing, but in General I've noticed that there is a HUGE taboo about going about inside a woman's private parts around there and doctors spend the less time possible down there. Even more disturbing is how doctors dismiss a latex allergy!!!!!! Mind you I'm allergic to latex, thankfully it's mild enough not to send me to ER and at the border between life and death, but any doctor should KNOW that repeated exposure would send me there. My previous Gyn said "Oh maybe you had problem only once" and kept using latex gloves that burnt me each time, and sounded amazed when I told her my allergist in Switzerland tested me positive for it, but never the less never stopped using latex gloves...my guess is that the Apollo clinic wasn't equipped with those, which in itself is a serious breach enough, what if once they have someone go in anaphylactic shock due to their refusal to consider it seriously?Same with the ultrasound guy, for an internal exam they roll out a condom over the probe, when I asked them to fetch a non latex condom he said "Ma'am there is no such thing" well man there sure is such a thing in Europe, so why on earth is a hospital not stocked with those??? Forced with the choice of either know whether baby is fine or leave, I clench my teeth and lie down, only to feel raw afterward (on top of being totally shaken to the bone by the diagnosis). We then head to the Wockhardt hospital, and yup same scenario, there is no latex condom there either and I'm forced to go through another painful and embarrassing session to be yet told the same ugly truth. For a hospital that have the word "Harvard" in it's title, and claim to be Asia's best gee please get some latex free gear, even my new Gyn keep a box of such gloves for patients like me!And while we are at the "world class facilities thing" most exam rooms in the west do not have faded bed sheets changed once in a while on the exam table, they also offer good back support and certainly not a pillow on which too many hair more or less clean or dirty depending the person have rested before yours, and and examination instrument don't come fished out of a pot of alcohol where they probably find their way back to it afterward waiting for the next patient! Oh boy in 4 years in India I've seen quite a few thing that tick me with doctors, but what really bugged me at wockardt more than anywhere else, is the fact they have that dead posh look about their reception which shout "We are the best" but the minute you walk to that counter to ask the receptionist about where to go and such, you are faced with a flaky, lazy, bored to death, totally unprofessional lady who apparently have also never been trained in the art of good manners and spend her time arguing with her colleague on how to use the phone and pester to get computer access!!!!! WHAT THE HELL IS THAT ??????It's not only in hospitals I've seen bored receptionist with not professionalism, it's everywhere, and DH told me being a receptionist in India is not well paid, and the girls doing that are not well educated. I say bull crap to that, Receptionist is for "undereducated" in Switzerland too, they are also paid peanuts, but they still do their work properly because they know that if they are rude or slack like the one I've seen around here, they would be fired. To me it sounds more like the eternal Indian problem of people NOT caring about good service. But in my book a company, any company, is as good as their receptionist, a thing maybe some around here should emphasize about, and it's worth reminding your staff...any member of it that they are the face of the company that hire them, and that a customer who see chaos with the "low scale" employee, will immediately doubt the skill of the big heads.I worked all the odd jobs during my studies in Switzerland : Brand promoter, waitress, barmaid, event hostess, hospital kitchen help (and I scrubbed my fare of dirty floor on this one), but I knew my only chance to last and get paid during those job was to show my best. Heck there is nothing glamorous about scrubbing a whole professional kitchen clean, in fact it was the most disgusting job I had, but never the less I put a smile on my face, was polite and nice with all the chefs and other help, which was free and brought gratification to all. I also spent 10-11 hours a day standing in a Supermarket bragging about the merit of a washing powder I didn't care about, I was paid peanuts for it, but I doubled the supermarkets sales for this product in 3 days of promotion which prompted my employer to hire me for more, if the job say : Sell, be courteous and look good at it. You do it PERIOD! You always end up getting some incentives in a way or another by giving your very best at all time, even if it's not an extra money perk, it comes in other ways.Well I guess I'll go off my soapbox here, and focus on licking my emotional wounds...and I'll try to write more regularly too now that the biggest of the storm is behind me.

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comments

I am so sorry to hear about your miscarriage. That is so hard physically and then to have such callous treatment on top of it. I would write a strongly-worded letter to the management at Apollo. Maybe they will sit up and take notice, maybe not, but at least you will have made your point. The part about using latex on someone who is allergic is almost criminally negligent and you should point it out.

Nothing I can say will make you feel better, but do rest, recover and take care of yourself. The emotional wounds take longer, I know, but time will heal...good luck!--SRC

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